Adam & Eve And Inbreeding

[Fidelis]

Another great discussion over at Jimmy Akin’s blog which asks the musical question: “If Adam and Eve were the first humans, why weren’t their kids mutants?”

jimmyakin.org/2006/01/a_reader_writes.html

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[DaveBj]

An excellent answer to a difficult question.

It has always been my contention that Adam and Eve were created perfect, genetically speaking, and that there were no “bad recessives” to combine and cause problem with their offspring, grand-offspring, etc.; that the “bad recessives” have accumulated over hundreds of generations of devolution in a sin-marred environment.

An example from the Pentateuch: Abraham married his half-sister (Gen. 20:12), but hundreds of years later, at the giving of the Law, such a marriage was proscribed (Lev. 18:9, 11; 20:17; Deut. 27:22).

However, Jimmy puts forward several other responses that are also perfectly plausible.

DaveBj

 

[Fidelis]

DaveBj:

An excellent answer to a difficult question.

It has always been my contention that Adam and Eve were created perfect, genetically speaking, and that there were no “bad recessives” to combine and cause problem with their offspring, grand-offspring, etc.; that the “bad recessives” have accumulated over hundreds of generations of devolution in a sin-marred environment

This would be my answer to this as well.

It is a question worth asking, since this is exactly the kind of question that someone would get hit broadside with when they were least expecting it.